Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is just a place to hangout and chat with other members of the guild. I'll put up some disscusions for us to have, and you are welcomed to put some up of your own as well. This will be located in the main forum for the time being just because it is the only place that it will get any publicity and after it gets more popular and more people know it is around, I will move it to the chat forum.

The fist disscsion will be about swords. I have done quite a bit of reasearch on this topic, but I do respect your opinions and you may debate it with me or what not.

Which sword would you say has the most superior design? The most versatile uses? My vote would have to go to the cross between a katana and a rapier. The two of them combined would make the saber. The sabe is designed for both slashing and stabing capabilities. The katana does have stabbing capabilities but if the attack is dodged there is a very large amount of lag time, that you would surely be screwed over in.

The saber's design is quite simple, strong folded steel, a long one sided blade usually around 26-40 inches with a tang almost equivalent as that. The handle is built for one handed combat which allows the wrist to have full range of motion, which is hindered with the katana due to the design of its handle. The sword is usually able to be balanced with one finger near the hilt. I'm not sure if this aplies to the katana but it doesn't with the rapier who's blade is heavyer than the handle. Another feture the saber shares with other european swords is that the blade dulls and has to be resharpened. Katanas on the other hand have very hard steel on its edge that allows the user to use it longer with out it dulling but it has a higher chance of chiping or the blade simply breaking in two.

Now to its uses and fighting style. The europeans discovered that the fastest way from point a to point b it a strait line which equals a stab. This is the principal of european fencing. This is how the rapier came into being. The problem with the rabier was that it couldn't cut which allowed people to just grab the blade with their bare hands in order to hinder the other opponent. This is most likely why the saber has a cutting edge. Thus the saber was a weapon born with peak stabbing capabilities and great cutting and slicing abilities.

In war there was never a sword fit for the calvery as the saber. A stab from a person riding on a horse has a lower chance of parrying or dodging than a slice which provides more surface area to attack. The stabing capabilities of the saber and its design make it perfect for this job. The blade was curved and had a small notch on the end to allow it to slide out of the taget with ease after striking. The saber use with the calvery was at its greatest during the Civil War of the United States by the confederate forces when they would use hit and run tactics to attack union infantry men, who greatly out numbered them. The saber was such a useful piercing and cutting device armies used it up until WWI were the machine guns made calvery and infantry charges useless, if not suicidel. The saber is the only sword still in use today. It is used by some countries as a batton like weapon for crowed control.

Pros:
1. Slicing and piercing capabilities.
2. Supurb calvery use.
3.Wrist has free range of movement.
4.Well made, sturdy, not likely to snap if hit on its edge.
5. Can be used effectivly sharpened or not.
6. Able to counter an attack faster than a two handed sword.

Cons:
1. Some were unsharpend thus unable to cut.
2. Less stability than a two handed sword.

No I said it had less stability than a two handed sword because with two hands your arms are more what support it while with one hand it is more in your wrist.

Well since sabers use the european fencing style, parrying is somthing it has to do thou using one hand allows you to attack and block a lot faster than a sword that uses two hands.

You don't have to stop it, rather than knock it off course leavng them wide open.

ok... so what's the next topic for discussion (since that one seems to be over)?